Smiling Mom

Pssst, I’m over at SVMB today tal­king about a VERY SERIOUS addic­tion I have.…  SOS send help in the form of Twizz­lers.…

I was invi­ted to attend an event hos­ted by Leap­frog this past Sun­day night through my affi­lia­tion with Sili­con Valley Moms Blog.  Ini­tially I was mostly exci­ted to be atten­ding this event because it gave me an oppor­tu­nity to catch up with newer and older friends, drink with the girls, and have zero child res­pon­si­bi­li­ties for a few pre­cious hours.  I was in, but not too inte­res­ted in the pro­ducts that I knew would ine­vi­tably be pushed as an exchange for my attendance.

Turns out, I was plea­santly sur­pri­sed that abso­lu­tely no sales pitch given to us.  None.  We were asked, but not requi­red, to leave a com­ment on Leapfrog’s com­mu­nity forum.  We were not even asked to blog about our experience.

OK, now I’m listening…

In lieu of a sales pitch, Leap­frog enlis­ted the help of Dr. Cun­ningham, a Leap­frog advi­sory board mem­ber and direc­tor of the Joint Doc­to­ral Pro­gram in Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion at UC Ber­ke­ley.  Dr. Cun­ningham enga­ged us in an hour long dis­cus­sion regar­ding the impor­tance of fre­quently spea­king and rea­ding to your chil­dren ages zero to five.

Recently I had the oppor­tu­nity to lis­ten to a pod­cast from NPR’s This Ame­ri­can Life in which they did a seg­ment narra­ted by “Wha­te­ver It Takes” author Paul Tough entit­led Baby College.  He fin­dings show that the typi­cal middle class family speaks to their infants and todd­lers dra­ma­ti­cally more often and more posi­ti­vely than the typi­cal lower income family does.  Fas­ci­na­ting!  His work focu­ses on brea­king the cycle of gene­ra­tio­nal poverty by focu­sing on the chil­dren.  If you have 30 minu­tes to lis­ten about his ongoing work in New York, it’s truly worth your time.

Dr. Cun­ningham sug­gests that we should expose our chil­dren to rich lan­guage through our words, books, and tech­no­logy, and in turn our chil­dren will have a bet­ter chance of rea­ding fluently and com­prehen­ding dif­fi­cult voca­bu­lary at an early age.

What a power­ful con­nec­tion, and a fabu­lous discussion.

I left the event with a gift bag full of the latest Leap­frog pro­ducts.  My chil­dren will be get­ting some pretty sweet Christ­mas gifts this year, thanks to our new favo­rite toy com­pany, Leapfrog.

OH, did I say toy com­pany?  I should cla­rify.  Leap­frog first iden­ti­fies the skill that needs to be taught, then crea­tes a sys­tem in which to teach that skill.  Kinda like a really smart teacher, huh?  So I should say that thanks to our new favo­rite teacher, Leap­frog, my chil­dren will have hours of fun lear­ning through play!

*****Leap­frog also pro­vi­ded us with a cou­pon to save $10 off any order of $50 or more when you shop at leapfrog.com which is good through Novem­ber 15^th, 2008.  So shop away!  I know I will be. 

Cou­pon Code: HY8BHPR

Thanks Leap­frog!!  I’m a new con­vert.  I’ll pro­mote you.  I’ll con­sult for you.  I’ll work with you.  Heck, I’d even help birth some of your cute little froggy gup­pies if I could!  I appre­ciate how nicely you trea­ted us mom bloggers!!

OK, I’m pretty much done dis­cus­sing my son’s horri­fic tan­trum phase that he’s taken resi­dence in.  I sucks.  I’m stres­sed, but it looks like some of these beha­viors are here to stay.  The tan­trums have redu­ced in time, but not in inten­sity.  He’s going to school nicely, which is a bles­sing.  But he tends to loose it in the eve­ning.  He’s tired.  Very tired by night time.  I’ve pretty much become emo­tio­nally detached when he works him­self up into a tizzy, which is a very, very good thing.  When I men­tally go to my happy place, I am able to more ade­qua­tely deal with the outbursts.

Last night’s melt down only took 35 minu­tes, not an hour and a half.  Thank God.

Any­way, I deci­ded to write a post on a ligh­ter note… my new iPhone!!  Squee!!

Actually, it’s not new, it’s my husband’s hand me down.  Heck I don’t care.  Anything’s bet­ter than the P.O.S. I use to own.

Today at Sili­con Valley Mom’s Blog, I write about my love for the new iPhone.  Let’s just say that this little device is good, oh so good, for my per­so­nal life!    Now go read, and leave me a comment!

School is back in ses­sion and many of our kids are ending yet another sum­mer of fun and relaxation.

In my ten years of teaching, I’ve encoun­te­red many chil­dren who could have bene­fi­ted from some basic hou­sehold rou­ti­nes.  As a result I’ve com­pi­led a list of healthy habits & rou­ti­nes that help make the tran­si­tion from sum­mer to school much smoother.

1.  Bed­time, bed­time, bed­time.
Your child’s body, age 12 and under, on ave­rage requi­res 10–11 hours of sleep per night.  Every night.  If you have a tee­na­ger, they gene­rally require 8 1/2 hours to 9 1/2 hours of nightly sleep.

Why is this infor­ma­tion impor­tant?  It’s sim­ple.   Kids per­form bet­ter, are able to focus more, and have bet­ter days when they are fully rested.

…sleep depri­va­tion adds up over time, so an hour less per night is like a full night without sleep by the end of the week. Among other things, sleep depri­va­tion can lead to:

• dec­rea­sed attentiveness
• dec­rea­sed short-term memory
• incon­sis­tent performance
• dela­yed res­ponse time

2.  Eat a healthy break­fast each morning.

Make sure that your child’s break­fast con­sists of high-fiber and nutrient-rich whole grains, fruits, and dairy pro­ducts.    Limit the amount of highly refi­ned sugars and car­bohy­dra­tes your child eats each mor­ning.  More sugar in the mor­ning equals a less focu­sed student.

Evi­dence from the report sug­gests that eating break­fast may improve cog­ni­tive func­tion rela­ted to memory, test gra­des, and school attendance.

Eating break­fast, a healthy break­fast, is impor­tant.  VERY important!

3.  Pack a healthy snack.

Around 5 1/2 hours pas­ses bet­ween the time a child eats break­fast to time lunch is ser­ved.  That’s a long time to ask one of our stu­dents to be without food, calm and on task.

Remem­ber to pack a healthy snack each and every day.

Not coo­kies or sugary, pre­pac­ka­ged foods. But healthy foods such as fruit, vege­ta­bles, cheese, or dried fruits & nuts.

4. Rou­tine, rou­tine, routine!!

Create a rou­tine your child can count on for the after-school hours.  Have a spe­cial spot for home­work com­ple­tion and make clear how much rest time your child has prior to begin­ning home­work.  Have a set din­ner­time and bedtime.

Having a family rou­tine can create a sense of secu­rity.  When a child feels safe and secure at home, he/she always per­forms bet­ter at school.

Good luck and have a won­der­ful school year!!

Ori­gi­nal Sili­con Valley Moms Blog post.